Russell proud of resilience after string of problems

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, George Russell is 50 points behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the drivers' championship By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent at the Hungaroring Published 8 minutes ago George Russell says he has had to be "the most resilient I've ever been" to cope with the string of problems that have affected his title challenge this season. Russell heads into this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix 50 points behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli after retiring from the Belgian race last weekend following a first-lap collision with Lewis Hamilton. That doubled his deficit to Antonelli, who won the race to take his sixth victory in 10 grands prix this season. "I definitely feel this is the most resilient I've ever been in my whole life. I take pride in that as my mentality on the outside of the car," Russell said. "I guess it's because I still believe in myself and the team, even when everything looks against us. I've been in this position a couple of times this season, and then managed to bounce back and get a good result, or two." Alonso optimistic about Aston Martin upgrade - will it decide his future? Published 3 hours ago How to follow Hungarian Grand Prix on the BBC Published 8 hours ago Russell had reduced his deficit from 66 points to 25 over the three races in Spain, Austria and Britain. "The run from Monaco to Silverstone, I took strides forward," Russell said. "It was a step back, but I'm still closer today than I was four races ago, and not even halfway through (the season) yet. There's still a lot of things I need to work on myself." Russell had a particularly trying weekend in Belgium, with a series of engine-related issues affecting his performance. In the gap between Belgium and Hungary, Mercedes have understood what happened to Russell to leave him short of electrical deployment in the final part of the lap. This cost him about half of his 0.5-second deficit to Antonelli in qualifying. And in the race, while both had the same shortage of electrical power on accelerating out of the first corner after the start, circumstances meant Antonelli was less affected by it than Russell. The Italian lifted into Eau Rouge because he was being challenged by Max Verstappen's Red Bull. That reset his system and meant he had deployment on the following straight. Russell took Eau Rouge flat, and his lack of deployment left him vulnerable to Hamilton, who collided with him at the following chicane. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Russell collides with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton on the first lap of last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix He said: "These new power units are just exceptionally complex, and there was just something deeply embedded in the calibration and the code that was almost impossible to see unless you knew exactly what to look for. So I'm glad we have found it. "Spa and Silverstone probably exposed the issue just because of the nature of the track. Of course it's a bit frustrating to have what ha